Listen, I might be derailing this and I'm sorry. The only reason I can even talk about my fps in fgl_glxgears and Quake3 is because I've got the external agpgart module loaded. For some reason having it loaded allows X to start (even though everything indicates that ATI's internal module is the one that is actually being used), and even enables some for of acceleration. When it's not loaded I end up right back at the point where I first posted in this thread so maybe we're supposed to be working from there. I'll go and investigate that a little bit more

So with agpgart and fglrx loaded into the kernel you get the output first posted where acceleration is working?

And with agpgart not loaded and just fglrx loaded into the kernel you get the second output where it fails?

Is that right?

You'll have to forgive me mate. I made another mistake. I've been spending hours staring at the command line thinking, surfing google and google groups, searching forums, experimenting with ideas, looking through logs and worrying about taking up the time of helpful people like you. I had at some point during the countless reboots set my AGP back to 4x and forgotten about it. It's running at 8x now and I have FULL acceleration. Over 3000fps in glxgears and 217fps in Quake3. That's more like it!

Now, your questions

Right now I have agpgart loaded (agp_try_unsupported=1) and flgrx loaded into the kernel. I have full acceleration (with agp set to 8x in BIOS)

Without the external agpgart module loaded but with fglrx loaded into the kernel I can't startx. I see the following in the console:

=====================================================
(WW) fglrx: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:1:0:1) found
(EE) fglrx(0): board is third party board
(EE) fglrx(0): [agp] unable to acquire AGP, error "xf86_ENODEV"
(EE) fglrx(0): cannot init AGP
=====================================================

Time for the bizarre part again because I see this in XFree86.0.log instead:

=====================================================
(II) fglrx(0): [drm] loaded kernel module for "fglrx" driver
(II) fglrx(0): [drm] created "fglrx" driver at busid "PCI:1:0:0"
(II) fglrx(0): [drm] added 8192 byte SAREA at 0xf8a06000
(II) fglrx(0): [drm] mapped SAREA 0xf8a06000 to 0x401e0000
(II) fglrx(0): [drm] framebuffer handle = 0xe0000000
(II) fglrx(0): [drm] added 1 reserved context for kernel
(II) fglrx(0): DRIScreenInit done
(II) fglrx(0): Kernel Module Version Information:
(II) fglrx(0): Name: fglrx
(II) fglrx(0): Version: 2.9.12
(II) fglrx(0): Date: May 9 2003
(II) fglrx(0): Desc: ATI Fire GL DRM kernel module
(II) fglrx(0): Kernel Module version matches driver.
(II) fglrx(0): Kernel Module Build Time Information:
(II) fglrx(0): Build-Kernel UTS_RELEASE: 2.4.20
(II) fglrx(0): Build-Kernel MODVERSIONS: no
(II) fglrx(0): Build-Kernel __SMP__: no
(II) fglrx(0): Build-Kernel PAGE_SIZE: 0x1000
(II) fglrx(0): [drm] register handle = 0xf5000000
(EE) fglrx(0): [agp] unable to acquire AGP, error "xf86_ENODEV"
(EE) fglrx(0): cannot init AGP
=====================================================

Which one is actually represents reality I am not sure of :/

I have definitely opted to use ATI's internal agpgart module during fglrxconfig. No matter how mentally exhausted I am I know that for sure because I reran it and created the config again. (Well, you can see that from my XF86Config-4 file anyway.)

So, however strange this may be if I choose to use ATI's internal agpgart module AND load the kernels external agpgart module I can get X up and running and enjoy full 3D acceleration.

I'm mostly stabbing in the dark here but after all of this it occured to me that although ATI's module supports AGP8x chipsets in general maybe it doesn't support the SiS655. In this case maybe the fact that the external module recognizes it first (with agp_try_unsupported=1) subsequently allows ATI's internal module to aquire the agp port as well. But that could all just be the senseless ramblings of a linux newbie

I'm happy now. This has been a real thorn in my side. It reminds me of that scene in Armageddon where the russian cosmonaut starts smashing the machinery and then yells "FINALLY, WE CAN GO HOME!".

I'm not going to take off though. If you want me to try some other things out or tell you anything else about my config for the purpose of figuring all this out I'll be glad to oblige. A lot of people seem to have this problem (or something similar) so I'd be glad to assist the effort in even a small way if I can

Also, THANKYOU mate for your help up till now. I see you helping out in a lot of threads and you're doing a great job

hey man, trust me we've all been there... after this much time with a problem as frustrating as this when you finally get it to work you really don't tend to question the how or the why but instead you just load up the games and enjoy the fact that it works. can figure out the whys and hows later.

happy gaming and glad to hear it works.

laters,
jpbarto